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Topic Review (Newest First)

05-03-2009 01:31 AM

catalinamike

Xantrex truecharge 20--stoped working & lousy customer service

Purchased in 2007, 2 years only, my Truecharge 20 stop working.

I tried to get service, I got attitude and was told it was not worth fixing, not even a service centre that would not want to service it.
One year warranty.

I purchased a ProMarnier-very helpful service, 30 month warranty.
Made in USA, not CHINA!

03-10-2009 04:00 AM

chef2sail

Montinedo

Good choice. I went with the identical truecharge2 40 amp last year. Compact footprint...great features. Especially the equilization one, which most cheaper chargers do not have. If you do this once a month and knock of the deposits on your plates itill help your batteries last longer. Have been very happy with it.

I also purchase the Xantrex $120 echo charger this year to install. After listen to Saildog and others here I beleive that it is the most efficient way to set up your electrical system and achieve the largest usable housebank, while insuring a fully charged engine battery. I have a group 27 staring battery with a house bank of 6 Trojan 105 giving me 660 amph. Our electrical "diet" averages about 120 amp per day ( most of this is refrigeration) so without any charging from the engine or Honda 2000 generator we can go 3 days easily.

03-10-2009 12:36 AM

montenido

Thanks for the great suggestions folks. Labatt, I appreciate the offer (really) but I ordered a Xantrex truecharge2 40 amp. From what I read, it should quickly top off my batts with my generator. SD, I have no idea why I have two starting batteries. I will look at them next time I am at the boat. Maybe I will end up adding the third battery to my house bank. Not too sure of the sizes, I should have noted that before posting. They are all maintenance-free.

Thanks for the input. I'll post again when I install the Xantrex.

03-05-2009 12:30 AM

labatt

When I remove my Xantrex Freedom 15 tomorrow (1500W inverter, 75A charger, 15A (or is it 10A?) echo charger built in, to replace it with a Freedom 25, I'll gladly sell it to you for $600. It works great, but I needed more charging capacity myself for our new 800AH bank.

03-04-2009 09:26 AM

patrickrea

I put in Promariner ProSport 12 charger. 3 Stage charger. Handles dual banks. Works great. Easy installation. You could step up to the ProSport 20 easily enough. I just saw in my Bass Pro Shop flyer that the 12 is CDN$99 (~US$75!!).

03-04-2009 07:11 AM

sailingdog

I'd go with an Iota. They're far less expensive than the Xantrex and very decent quality.

Just curious, why do you have two starting batteries?? It would make far more sense to have one starting battery and three in the house bank. There's also need to go with a two bank charger for most setups, since the draws on a starting bank are relatively minimal. If you really want to do that, a better solution is to use an echo charger or battery combiner, with the echo charger being the preferred solution.

How large is your battery bank and what is the makeup of the batteries? Sizing the charger properly is important. IIRC, it should be about 20-25% of the battery bank size, if they're wet cells. Wet cells can't generally absorb more than that in the bulk charging phase, and going bigger will be a waste of money. AGMs usually have a much higher acceptance rates, so a larger charger can be useful.

03-04-2009 06:09 AM

midnightsailor

I have a Xantrex 20 on my boat and have installed several Xantrex 20's and 40's on other boats . I have been very happy with mine and so have the other boat owners who I installed them for. While I know there are several other equally good chargers out there , This is one I know I can recommend

Charges three different chemistries at three different levels of charge at the same time, needs only 750 watts of input power to work. Read the spec, you'll like it.

03-04-2009 02:25 AM

TxLnghrn

No Personal Experience

The Iota DLS chargers have been highly recommended here and on other sites. They seem very reasonably priced and will be what I go with on my electrical redo.

Michael

03-04-2009 01:32 AM

montenido

Battery Charger Died, Replacement Options?

Hi all, I was at the boat today and happened to notice the the lights on my battery charger were all out. I checked all the wiring in and out and couldn't find anything obvious (no customer servicable fuses, etc). It is an old WM 5 amp 3-stage charger. Not too fancy, but it actually seemed to work for what my needs are.

I want to replace it with something that has more charging amps and that can handle two banks of batteries. I have two house and two starting batteries, and would like to be able to top them off with my Honda 2000 generator while on the hook. I am open to all suggestions for a replacement charger, but I would like to keep the cost somewhat reasonable.